Transitioning from entertainment in the streets to entertainment through technology, popular culture has evolved in our society over the years. Recreation has changed from being restricted in certain areas to being encouraged all over. Music halls have evolved to theaters and applications to use on our phones. People have gone from being banned to play football in the streets to becoming professionals under a "successful commercial venture" (p. 50). Our environment has drastically changed due to development in technology. These changes have impacted our society in many ways, but has it impacted us for better or for worse? Our government enforcing laws on the American people can be compared to The Capitol enforcing their power over the districts in The Hunger Games. These agencies use their environment to manipulate the public to gain and keep power in their hegemony.
Dystopian environments illustrate how people would survive and live in a hegemony if that environment turned into reality. In The Hunger Games, Katniss is continuously under watch by The Capitol after winning the 74th Hunger Games. By winning it in a manner that was unfavorable to The Capitol, President Snow planned to use her publicity for his own power. He used Katniss and Peeta's "love" to manipulate the public into thinking that there can be happiness and love as a result of the games. When Katniss begins to publicly express her feelings against the Capitol, President Snow begins to shift his focus of using Katniss as an example of success and freedom to using Peeta as a model of propaganda against Katniss. President Snow used his nationwide broadcasts to try and convince the people of the districts that Katniss was the problem.
The tributes in the 75th Hunger Games were also an example of being manipulated by the dystopian leadership, as seen in Catching Fire. The environment of these games worked based on a clock, with a different type of danger occurring every hour in its zone. The Gamemakers chose to control and alter the setting of the games to manipulate the tributes into being attacked at different times of the day. Katniss, Peeta, Finnick and Mags were all manipulated into thinking they were safe one night until poison gas was released to chase after them. The life of Mags was lost from this poison due to the lack of pity the Gamemakers have for the tributes. Another example of manipulation comes from Johanna thinking she would be safe for the rest of her life after winning her first Hunger Games. After 74 years of the Hunger Games, they had never changed their rules to put previous winners back in again. Due to Katniss and Peeta spoiling the previous games, Johanna was thrown right back into the 75th Hunger Games with Katniss and others for one more round.
The ideology of power and dominance was evident through President Snow in The Hunger Games. By dehumanizing the tributes and only looking at them as a source of profit and publicity, he embodied the role of a dystopian leader. By forcing people into fearful, hurting lives, President Snow cared nothing more than controlling the districts and anyone that tried to stop him. By separating each district, individuals were restricted to their areas unless chosen for the games, where they were restricted even more. This tight regulation of space allowed President Snow to be in complete control at all times, until Katniss Everdeen came along.
Sean P. Connors's quote in "The Limits of Panopticism" describes Katniss and President Snow's conflict of power by saying, "The goal of sovereign power was to make an example [of a guilty person], not only by making people aware that the slightest offense was likely to be punished, but by arousing feelings of terror by the spectacle of power letting its anger fall upon the guilty person" (p. 88). President Snow tried to make an example of a "guilty" Katniss by brainwashing and using Peeta as a speaker to the districts and to Katniss to stop the rebellion. He used any sort of propaganda he could find to make The Capitol look better than everyone else around them. This reign of power was cut short by Katniss who also filled the role of this quote by Connors. Every time President Snow took action against her, she always tried to respond by punishing him for his actions. The more she responded to him, the more people looked up to her, which is how she filled the role of the mockingjay. She also makes an example of President Coin as soon as she finds out she was responsible for the death of Prim. Near the end of Mockingjay pt. 2, she has the chance to publicly kill President Snow in front of everyone, which would give all of the sovereign power to President Coin. Instead, Katniss raises her arrow and shoots President Coin, killing her where she stood. As a result, everyone else who chose to watch his death decided to kill him themselves. President Snow could not manipulate the public anymore. The environment finally had the chance to destroy the dystopian leader they had hoped and wished for.
Works Cited
Szeman and O'brien. “The History of Popular Culture.” Popular Culture: A User's Guide, pp. 29–56.
Connors, Sean P. “‘I Was Watching You, Mockingjay.’” The Politics of Panem; Challenging Genres, Sense Publishers, 2014, pp. 85–102.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games trilogy.
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